What we’ve been doing – December 2013 in review

Marketing Services Update December 2013:

During December the marketing team’s focus is mainly on in-market visitor support. Summer communications highlighted key messages of WDC 2014, Responsible Tourism, safety, value and events with the central theme for December being shopping and festivities.

December has shown a steady growth across our website and social media platforms, namely reaching 300 500 fans on the Facebook page (in comparison to 272 000 in 2012, when the Facebook Campaign and promoter posts were being run).

We are now the highest ranking destination fan page in South Africa, making CTT the 35th most liked page in South Africa. Email communications have shown an increase in opening rates for both our Trade and Industry Newsletters by over 40% and 30% respectively, despite the decrease in the database sizes.

Media hosting is quieter in December as hostings are conducted around the low season where preferable rates are achieved. Events support has drastically increased as we are no longer providing financial support, only online marketing which enables us to support more events. Media ROI shows the expected results of being less YOY due to our strategic decision to decrease corporate communications.

Marketing highlights in December:

Media Hosting:

2 media groups hosted; 2 total media pax.

Media ROI:

R 3 024 466.80

Events:

45 events were supported this month

Trade:

Toolkit and Trade Newsletter focused on promotion of WDC2014

E-mail Comms:

23.57% Industry Newsletter open rate

21.05% Trade Newsletter open rate

30% Industry Newsflash open rate

No visitor Newsletter

Website:

86 253 visitor

Blog:

26 posts throughout December

Events

4,821 page-views for top performing Blog: New Year's Eve 2013

Social Media:

3227 Facebook growth in likes, 302,274 total

Walking Tour App:

967 this month and 11 934 downloads to date

Visitor Services Update:

The number of over-the-counter interactions during December 2013 shows an increase of 25% and year on year showed a decrease of 7% in visitor interactions in the VIC’s. A total of 31 071 over-the-counter interactions were recorded of which 12 726 were within the CTT managed VIC’s.

The top 3 contributors to domestic visitors are:

Western Cape (73%, 2%, down from the previous month)

Gauteng (9%, 1%, down from the previous month)

And Kwa-Zulu Natal (5%, 1%, up from the previous month).

The top 3 contributors to international visitors are:

Germany (25%, 3%, down form the previous month)

UK (13%, the same as the previous month);

And USA (8%, 1%, up from the previous month).

53% of visitors were from the domestic market and 47% from the international market.

Telephone and email inquiries for the network showed a 32% increase month on month and 0.4% increase year on year. Total number of inquiries received for the network was 16 768, of which 15 531 was telephonic inquiries and 1237 emails.

330 Bookable inquiries were received by the CTT network; this is a 17% decrease month on month and 15% decrease year on year. The team successfully converted 292 of the inquiries to confirmed bookings. This is conversion rate of 88%.

Industry Services Update:

The membership database currently stands at 1 359 members with eight new members being recruited during December.

A total of 4 899 engagement with members were recorded via different channels for example newsflashes, phone calls, visits, emails, business support, etc. This is much lower than previous months, but it was strategically planned this way as only urgent communication was sent to members during the peak summer season.

The selection process for the Board Development, Fund reached a close with the two successful businesses being chosen. Read more about it here.

The selection process for the Board Development Fund reached a close with the two successful businesses being chosen and announced at the end of January 2014.